Web Resources

Lesson Plans

Title: TV 411 Summarizing
Description:
This interactive lesson takes students through activities and makes an excellent introduction to the skill of summarizing because it focuses more on reading than on writing. Teachers can also easily extend the lesson to writing activities in summarizing.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (8) 2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. [RL.8.2]

TV 411 Summarizinghttp://www.tv411.org...
This interactive lesson takes students through activities and makes an excellent introduction to the skill of summarizing because it focuses more on reading than on writing. Teachers can also easily extend the lesson to writing activities in summarizing.

Title: Connecting The Giver and Animal Farm
Description:
This unit plan links The Giver and Animal Farm. The plans include journal prompts and cooperative-learning activities.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (8) 5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. [RL.8.5]

Podcasts

Title: Elements of a Fairy Tale Video
Description:
This video uses clips from Disney movies to teach the elements of a fairy tale.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 5: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. [RL.9-10.5]

Informational Materials

Title: Teaching The Diary of Anne Frank
Description:
This is a virtual photograph tour of the place where Anne Frank and her family hid. It can accompany the reading of the the text.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (8) 12: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories). [RI.8.3]

Learning Activities

Title: Princess Bride Character Template
Description:
Use Cubeecraft templates for character analysis. Students could use this manipulative to identify and label character traits. This could also be used for point of view activities.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (8) 2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. [RL.8.2]

Princess Bride Character Templatehttp://www.cubeecraf...
Use Cubeecraft templates for character analysis. Students could use this manipulative to identify and label character traits. This could also be used for point of view activities.

Title: The Hero in Fiction Webquest
Description:
This webquest provides graphic organizers, videos, and links to teach students about hero archetypes and the hero's journey.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (11) 3: Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). [RL.11-12.3]

Title: Teaching Point of View Through Art
Description:
This lesson idea centers around adding thought bubbles to works of art or other images in order to teach point of view. This concept could also be used for creative writing purposes or to introduce a setting for a story.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (8) 2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. [RL.8.2]

Teaching Point of View Through Arthttp://historytech.w...
This lesson idea centers around adding thought bubbles to works of art or other images in order to teach point of view. This concept could also be used for creative writing purposes or to introduce a setting for a story.

Teacher Tools

Title: Online Reading Activities
Description:
Create your own virtual class for students in grades 1-12 that allows them to interact with fun & interactive reading activities that will improve reading comprehension.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (12) 13: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in The Federalist No. 10). [RI.11-12.4]

Online Reading Activitieshttp://readtheory.or...
Create your own virtual class for students in grades 1-12 that allows them to interact with fun & interactive reading activities that will improve reading comprehension.